The cramping in Dan King's right calf came suddenly near the end of the eight-mile uphill bicycle climb during the 2012 CEO Endurance World Championships, leaving King wondering if he would be able to pedal the final, steep stretch.

The bike climb was fourth of six events comprising the three-day CEO Endurance World Champs, held in September in Tennessee. (For details on the race, see ceochallenges.com.)

King, a well-known local runner and co-founder of Denver-based ReadyTalk, put the pain aside and tried pedaling, using one leg, to the finish. He got across the line first, and he was named "World's Fittest CEO."

"It was an awesome event, just spectacular," King said last week. "There are great people there, and the drama builds up. It really felt like a different athletic experience."

King, 53, is used to success. In 2011, he won the cross country gold medal at the World Masters Track and Field Championships.

The CEO Endurance World Championships is organized by Ted Kennedy, president of CEO Challenges. The Boulder-based firm was bought earlier this year by Life Time Fitness, but Kennedy still runs the show.

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"No question, Dan is the fittest CEO we have ever had in any of our events; he deserves the title," said Kennedy, who puts on 14 CEO events a year.

Because of high demand, those CEOs, "C-suite" executives and business owners wanting to take on King will have to qualify for the 2013 CEO Endurance World Championships at a June regional race set for the Olympic Training Center and Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.

Mike Sandrock

King and Kennedy are the type of guys we think of when talk turns to Boulder County being the epicenter of endurance training and a nexus of growing entrepreneurship; fit, smart, driven to succeed, with easygoing, pleasant personalities. Those are the qualities that led Kennedy and King, both former collegiate track athletes, to start successful businesses while finding a way to continue training at a high level into their 50s.

ReadyTalk, a 160-employee firm that provides services for remote meetings and webinars, has been named by Outside and Colorado Biz magazines as a top company to work for. However, reaching the pinnacle of the business and athletic world did not come easily for King, and students and young entrepreneurs can perhaps learn from his journey that was fueled by the urge to do something in life he could be proud of.

Much of King's drive -- and aerobic capacity -- seems to have come from his father, Wil, an educator and financial planner who at age 50 clocked 35 minutes, 8 seconds at the Bolder Boulder. Growing up, "I do not recall a day where my dad did not exercise," said King. "I just internalized it. In our family, that is what you did."

The four King siblings are all successful and athletic, and for years the Kings won the family team title at the Bolder Boulder. King was a top distance runner at Colorado Springs' Coronado High School and walked on to the cross country team at the University of Colorado, where he majored in chemical engineering. He was good enough to run in the NCAA championships, but his senior year, after running a sub 31-minute cross country 10K at Stanford, was struck with a severe case of plantar fasciitis. That was it for his collegiate career.

After graduating, King did not find engineering work "interesting or meaningful.

"After five years of hard studying, I thought, 'I don't want to do this for a living.' I liked finance, and entrepreneurship felt like the most interesting thing for me," said King, who was influenced by the Jim Collins book "Built to Last."

After 10 years in Vail and Breckenridge, and working for two biotech firms and a telecom startup, King, along with his brother, Scott, started ReadyTalk in 2001. Its growth to $30 million in revenue is based "on a desire to build a great, enduring company and the idea that people are our No. 1 asset," explained King.

King puts in full 40- to 50-hour work weeks, fitting his training around work and family. Twice a week, he gets up in the dark to ride the 38 miles from his southeast Boulder home to ReadyTalk. Monday nights, he takes a masters swim class in Denver, and he runs during the lunch hour.

"I love to compete," he said. "I love seeing what I am capable of as an athlete and to have a goal three to six months out there. I don't need to race a lot, but I do need something new. I might not always come out on top, but when I am fit, I feel I should be at the top of my age group; that is how my mind works, how I am hardwired and is consistent with who I am."

Next up for King is the annual Turley's Thanksgiving Day 5K on CU's east campus, followed by the Dec. 8 U.S. club cross country nationals in Lexington, Ky., where he will compete on a Boulder team put together by coach Darren De Reuck.

And next year, King added with growing excitement, "There is the triathlon. That could be a whole new playground of fun. Competing is fun. Still just as fun as when I was a kid, and in some ways, it is more fun."

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